02/06/2007: "A Deafening Silence"

Syndicated columnist Molly Ivins died, too young at age 62, on Wednesday evening, the 31st of January, from a reoccurrence of breast cancer. More than 400 newspapers subscribed to her nationally syndicated column, The passing of Ivins, liberal, progressive, patriot, humorist, and champion of democracy leaves a journalistic silence that will be deafening.

Ivins wrote with a unique style and wit from her home base in Austin, Texas about local and national politics and politicians with facts and evidence as the targets and candor and humor as the swords. Courageous to the end, her final column published on January 11, 2007 by Creators Syndicate was titled, "Stand Up Against the Surge" and may be read on the progressive online news center, Common Dreams (commondreams.org). Her final paragraph was a call to action: "We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war. Raise hell. Think of something to make the ridiculous look ridiculous. Make our troops know we're for them and trying to get them out of there. Hit the streets to protest Bush's proposed surge. If you can, go to the peace march in Washington on January 27. We need people in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding, "Stop it, now!"

Although an irreplaceable loss, we can honor Molly Ivins life by following her advice, "So keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through ‘kickin' ass and ‘celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was."

According to the Texas Observer more information about Molly Ivins is available online from The Texas Observer(texasobserver.org). Tax-deductible contributions to honor her may be made to The Texas Observer, 307 West Seventh Street, Austin, TX 78701 or to the American Civil Liberties Union, 127 Broad Street, 18th floor, New York, NY 10004 (.aclu.org).